Great Ocean Road

[Davidr]

Doing a trip to Melbourne in a few weeks to catch up with my Bro and a heap of his mates and then ride a bunch of Victory motorcycles via the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell and back over a couple of days taking part in (advantage of) a demo ride promotion Victory are doing.

Whilst I am generally not one for cruisers this sounded like an opportunity too good to miss.
Any recommendations for riding/visiting that stretch of our coastline ? (The style of bike should help dampen the temptation for warp speed)

[drakeley]

If you have to ride a Victory wear a paper bag over your head
Seriously, fantastic road but look out for Victoria's finest, heaven forbid you enjoy yourself.
Have fun

[sitstill]

leave the victory, take the RSV

its a fantastic stretch of road, just make sure you stop every now and then to admire the views, the cons of riding a sports bike is you miss a lot of it.

definitely stop at apollo bay and lorne

[MadMel]

I drove it for the first time two days ago, and certainly was wishing that I was on a bike. It is beautiful, and curvy. I wouldn't be too worried about being on a cruiser; there's a lot of traffic and few overtaking opportunities. If you were clipping along on a sportbike you'd spend the entire ride looking at various caravans' rear bumpers.

[Davidr]

Originally Posted by sitstill

leave the victory, take the RSV

Then I would have to slab it across a 7hr odd slog from Adelaide. My bike's not really made for long-hauling.
At least this way I get to fly over and pick up the bike in Melbourne, then its just a relatively short stretch of riding to the good bit.

Plus as MadMel has flagged, the nature of the road/cops/traffic makes it well suited to a cruiser anyway (at least that will be my excuse if anyone sees me).

[roulette]

It's an awesome road David, you will enjoy it on whatever bike. We do it every year on the way to Moto GP. Don't speed on the straights but go has hard as you want through the twisty bits, the good thing about the GOR is the Police cant actually hide anywhere other than on the straights. Watch out for the tourists with Caravans as they tend to come round corners on the wrong side of the road.
Apollo Bay has a great atmosphere and and great place to have lunch.
I will post some vid from this year for you to look at.

[xrilek]

Originally Posted by roulette

It's an awesome road David, you will enjoy it on whatever bike. We do it every year on the way to Moto GP. Don't speed on the straights but go has hard as you want through the twisty bits, the good thing about the GOR is the Police cant actually hide anywhere other than on the straights. Watch out for the tourists with Caravans as they tend to come round corners on the wrong side of the road.
Apollo Bay has a great atmosphere and and great place to have lunch.
I will post some vid from this year for you to look at.

....I hope you wont upload the one from last year with me on the straight!!

[sitstill]

Originally Posted by roulette

It's an awesome road David, you will enjoy it on whatever bike. We do it every year on the way to Moto GP. Don't speed on the straights but go has hard as you want through the twisty bits, the good thing about the GOR is the Police cant actually hide anywhere other than on the straights. Watch out for the tourists with Caravans as they tend to come round corners on the wrong side of the road.
Apollo Bay has a great atmosphere and and great place to have lunch.
I will post some vid from this year for you to look at.

Ill have to organise to get the GOR footage off you as well. I need to relive memories.

[Davidr]

What a hoot.

Expensive marketing exercise for Victory Motorcycles - 5 bikes x 3 days + a further 2 bikes x 2 days, tanks of fuel, & heap of accommodation vouchers - but good on em! (Thanks)
Good exposure for their brand - 7 bikes together tends to draw a bit of attention and because they are not HDs people will come over and talk to you about them. We must have talked to 100+ people who were curious about them over the 3 days we had them.

1750cc engines or thereabouts but not real fast bikes - just loads of torque.
We had a mixture of cruiser styles from a "Sportster" type to a Winnebago on 2 wheels.


The bikes were about right for the GOR. They scraped pegs all the way through the windy bits - fun when I got used to it.
However I miss my Ape - thankfully there is a track day this weekend.

I recommend all you Melbournites latch onto this opportunity while it lasts - ref the Victory web site.

[Davidr]

However this is what a bike should look like